


Voltron Unsolved: The Mysterious Case of Lance McClain

by ayakocho, exocara



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BAMF Lance (Voltron), M/M, More tags will be added later, S A N D W O R M S, this tag will make sense after reading this, very confused and concerned team Voltron
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-06-29 23:39:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15739647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayakocho/pseuds/ayakocho, https://archiveofourown.org/users/exocara/pseuds/exocara
Summary: It begins with a mission on the Planet Sorei and escalates, rapidly, from there. Lance is hiding something and the paladins of Voltron need to find out what it is, and how they can convince Lance that they’re with him no matter what, before it’s too late.--Lance is hiding absolutely nothing and wants to know just what the hell has been up with his friends lately.





	1. Chapter One: Suspicion

**Case 1: The Sorei Mission**

 

It started with the mission on Planet Sorei, or maybe it started earlier than that. However, Sorei was when the water finally boiled over and someone started to notice that something was wrong. 

Allura was talking to the King of East Sorei when Lance sprinted forth, pushing the both of them to the ground. 

“Lance!” Allura began, reprimand in her voice, when she was immediately silenced by two bullets that shot past above them. 

If Lance hadn’t pushed them to the floor, they’d be dead where they stood. 

Quick as a flash, Lance aimed his bayard and-- 

A figure fell off a nearby tower, and landed on the floor. 

“Your Majesty!” the King’s most trusted advisor fretted, running towards them. He froze, suddenly, unable to take a step closer, the barrel of Lance’s bayard mere milimetres from his throat. 

“Honestly,” Lance said with a cocky smirk. “Act better, would you?” 

A snarl ripped its way onto the advisor’s face. 

“How did you find out?” he demanded. “I was so careful!” 

Lance just looked at him. Then, without further fanfare, Lance whacked him with the butt of his bayard. The advisor went down like a sack of potatoes and Lance seemed a little surprised at that. He looked at his bayard and then looked at the advisor and then looked at his bayard again, as if he could not comprehend how he could have knocked someone out in one hit. 

Keith saw everything.

 

-o-

 

“How did you know that Advisor Lysanderoth was a traitor?” the King asked. He seemed anguished at the reveal of his most trusted friend’s betrayal. 

“Uh,” Lance said. His eyes were flitting around the room, clearly unwilling to give a straight answer. “Just. Just a gut feeling. I could tell he was lying at some points and was generally untrustworthy. Super untrustworthy.” He seemed uncomfortable, very obviously hiding something. 

Keith narrowed his eyes.

 

-o-

 

“How did you know that Advisor Lysanderoth was a traitor?” the King asked. 

_ His name was Lysanderoth, _ Lance wanted to say.  _ And he had a book with a skull on it and cackled evilly to himself in dark corners when he thought no one was looking and had a sword called Evil Kingslayer 9000! How could he  _ not _ be a traitor? All that was missing was evil music playing in the background whenever he talked! _

“Uh,” Lance said instead. “Just… Just a gut feeling.” He wished Hunk was here. Hunk was great with sifting out the folk with bad intentions and was generally known for it too. Everyone trusts Hunk’s Jerk Detector, more so than they trusted Lance’s Lie Detector, even though Lance had a million siblings and babysat probably all the children in his town before he moved to the Garrison and hence was also very good at detecting lies. Well, mostly. Probably. Sixty percent right? 

Yeah, Lance might see why they had more faith in Hunk than him. Alas, Hunk was down with some sort of space cold and was hence absent from this mission. As was Pidge, who would  _ definitely _ not trust someone named ‘Lysanderoth’.  

“I could tell he was lying at some points and was generally untrustworthy.” Lance really hoped the King didn’t ask him for further explanation. “Super untrustworthy.” 

From across the room, Lance saw Keith glare at him and had to bite back a sigh, preparing himself for an interrogation once they were off the planet.

 

-o-

 

Keith did not interrogate Lance once they had returned to the castle ship. Instead, he had called for a meeting. 

“Keith,” Shiro began slowly. “Do you remember the time you tried to prove the existence of sandworms?” 

“Yes?” Keith replied equally slowly. “What about it.” 

Shiro gestured to the board in front of them. Red string was draped over it, connectings pins on the board. A picture of Lance was situated right in the middle of it. On the top right of the board were the words ‘Secret Past?!?!’ and below it ‘Secret Agent’. The ‘Secret Past?!?!’ was circled a few times in red marker. “This might be an incident similar to that.” 

Keith glared at him. 

“This is  _ nothing _ like the sandworms! And sandworms do exist, by the way, how else would there be so many caverns under the sand in--” Keith shook his head. “That’s not the point.” 

“I don’t know what the point is,” Keith heard Hunk whisper to Pidge. “Am I supposed to know? And why isn’t Lance here?” 

“The point!” Keith said loudly. “Is that Lance is hiding something from us.” 

The entire room stared blankly at Keith. Shiro mouthed the word ‘sandworm’ at him. Keith ignored it. 

“Case in point,” Keith barrelled on. “Lance was able to identify the location of a sniper in a split second, far quicker than any of the trained guards were able to.” 

“Lance is pretty observant,” Hunk said. “And he is our sharpshooter.” 

“Yes, but he was also able to knock out a Soreilian with a single hit. A hit in a very hidden yet effective part of the Soreilian body. Lance had somehow managed to pinpoint the vitals of an alien species! And it’s not the first time he’s done so!” Keith jabbed at the words ‘Killing Spots Recognition’ that were written in blue. 

“Lance hit him in the head,” Pidge said dryly. “Lance hits almost everything in the head. And heads are often vital points because they contain the brain. Also, some data I dug up showed that Soreilians have weaker physical physiologies compared to us.  _ Way _ weaker. Lance probably overestimated the strength that they could take.” 

Shiro was mouthing ‘sandworm’ again. 

“How about the fact that Lance suspected Advisor Lysanderoth before any of us?” 

“ _ That’s _ the guy’s name?!” Pidge exclaimed. “The question in this case would be, why  _ didn’t _ you suspect  _ Lysanderoth _ ?!” 

“Because,” Shiro replied, “Suspecting someone on the basis of their name is discrimination.” 

“Okay yeah,” Pidge relented. “I can see that. But he did turn out to be bad in the end.” 

“He did.” 

“As… interesting as this conversation has been,” Allura started. It was the first thing she’s said since the meeting began. “Lance is a rather open book. If he had any large secrets, secrets that could jeopardize Voltron, I trust that he would tell them to us. He might be goofy and fun-loving, but he is serious and professional when it comes to Voltron.” 

“Yeah,” Hunk agreed. “Lance wouldn’t hide something like that from us! And he’s been pretty open about where he came from! There’s no way he has some sort of secret past.” 

“Alright then,” Shiro said before Keith could open his mouth and refute angrily. “I hereby declare this meeting adjourned.” 

“Look on the bright side,” Shiro said to Keith, who was angrily reorganizing the board. “Lance can’t possibly be a sandworm.” 

_ “Fuck you!” _

 

-o-

 

**Case 2: The Car Chase**

 

“Shit!” 

The sound of blasters filled the air and lasers shot rapidly above their heads. 

The inhabitants of the planet had sold Voltron out to the Galra and were now trying to capture Pidge and Lance. Lance could feel despair and anxiety eating away at him. The inhabitants of the planet were on vehicles that highly resembled cars and Lance and Pidge were in the heart of a city, far, far away from their lions. Pidge was currently occupied with trying to decrypt some files they had stolen from the planet so it was left to Lance to figure out what to do. 

Currently, Lance and Pidge were hiding behind some stationary vehicles that Lance had already tried and failed to break into. He suddenly heard the now-familiar sound of one of the planet’s cars coming to a stop nearby, and the door opening. 

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” a sing-song voice called. Lance shifted a little and saw one of the inhabitants looking around. A vehicle was situated nearby, its door wide open. 

This was his chance. 

Lance brought his bayard up and shot the alien in what seemed to be their kneecaps. The alien fell to the floor with a howl and Lance quickly grabbed Pidge and hauled ass to the vehicle. 

The vehicle’s interior wasn’t that much different from a car as well, and Lance thanked the universe for small mercies. Lance knew how to hotwire a car from one of his older brothers during a delinquent phase. It was a skill set that he never thought he ever had to put in use but his brother had been adamant on teaching him. Thanks Marco. 

After successfully starting up the vehicle, Lance was met with a new problem: there didn’t seem to be any pedals to step on, or a wheel to steer. There were only two rectangular objects on the dashboard of the vehicle and they looked a lot like… game controls. There were two buttons on the right control, one in thumb pressing range while the other was located near the top. There was only one button on the left, also located on the top but, the left control had a small joystick that Lance could easily use his thumb to control. 

Lance pressed a button on the right control, using his thumb, and the vehicle began to move forward. He moved the joystick and the vehicle began to turn. He pressed the top button on the right control with his index finger and the vehicle braked. 

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered under his breath. This planet controlled its vehicles with  _ Mariokart Switch _ controls?! 

“What’s the matter?” Pidge asked. Her voice was tight and her eyes never left the screen of her laptop. Lance opened his mouth, about to reply, but lasers started to fire at the vehicle they were in. 

“Nevermind,” Lance said quickly. “I’ll explain later.” 

He smashed his thumb down on the button and the vehicle took off.

 

-o-

 

The vehicle swerved dangerously to the left and Pidge nearly erased an entire line of code. 

“Lance!” she yelled. 

“Sorry!” he shot back, eyes fixed on the road. “But we’re kinda in the middle of a sick car chase right now, and I’ve got to get them off our tail!” 

“What?!” Pidge turned around in her seat and, lo and behold, there were at least three other vehicles gunning after them. She realized that they were currently on what appeared to be a highway and Lance was somehow skillfully weaving in and out of traffic. 

Pidge knew that she often had a one-track mind when it came to things but how could she have missed something like this? 

“Don’t worry about it, Pidgey,” Lance said. “Just focus on whatever you’re doing. I’ll have us at our lions lickety-split. Besides, this is kinda like a race, right? I’ve done it before.” 

“If you’re sure.” There were some parts of what Lance said that seemed rather questionable, but Pidge didn’t think about them at the moment. There were more important things to do, like decrypt the files they had retrieved. Plus, she trusted Lance with her life. 

“Super sure.” Lance took another sharp turn, throwing the vehicle onto an uneven road. He took several more turns after that, and Pidge noticed that they had entered another city-like area. 

“Hold on tight!” Lance yelled suddenly, and Pidge only had a split second to grab onto the vehicle's handlebar before Lance jerked the vehicle towards the right, barely avoiding colliding into a wall.

The crashing sounds that came afterwards showed that their pursuers were not as lucky.

“Huh.” Maybe Keith’s suspicions weren't so far off after all.

 

-o-

 

“Keith,” Shiro sighed. 

“Wasn’t me this time,” Keith said, smugly pinning pictures of what seemed to be grainy security camera footage showing cars from a bird’s eye view. 

“I was the one who called for a meeting,” Pidge said. 

“Pidge?” Hunk said disbelievingly. “Why?” 

“Before I say anything, please look at this video.” Pidge tapped a few things onto her laptop and a large screen was projected into the middle of the room. It was similar to the pictures Keith had pinned up, showing a bird’s eye view of what seemed to be a highway full of cars. 

The video started to play and Shiro realized that they were looking at a car chase scene. The car in the front, the one being pursued, pulled off multiple reckless and daredevil stunts, swerving too close to edges and walls, and honest to god  _ drifting _ multiple times. It was rather impressive, but Shiro didn’t understand the point Pidge was trying to make. 

“The person who drove this car,” Pidge gestured to the car being pursued, “is Lance.”

“What.” 

Shiro turned to Keith with raised eyebrows. “Why are you surprised? Weren’t you the one who insisted that Lance was hiding something?” 

“I didn’t think this would be part of it! Pidge didn’t tell me anything!” 

“Ahem.” Shiro and Keith turned to Pidge. “Thank you for your attention,” Pidge said dryly. “Anyway, Lance hotwired the vehicle. He told me.” 

“ _ Lance _ hotwired the car?” Hunk yelped. “How did he even know how to do that?!”

“He said his brother taught him.” 

“So, his brother… or is that a coverup?” Keith muttered to himself. Shiro resisted the urge to roll his eyes. 

“What I wish to know is how Lance acquired such skills in the first place,” Coran said. “If I am not mistaken, these vehicles were from the latest mission on Planet MRKT? The planet is known for its races. Lance must be very skilled indeed to be able to out-drive the MRKTers there in a car chase. It’s a pity the vehicle was destroyed. I would love to see how far MRKT vehicles have progressed.” 

“Another thing bothers me. Lance said that he’s done this before but when I asked him to clarify it later, he said some bullshit about Mariokart being a competitive sport in his family! Mariokart is completely different from steering a wheel!” Pidge was frustrated. “You’d think that if he was going to lie, he would lie better.” 

Keith underlined the ‘Secret Past?!?!’ a few times and the ‘Secret Agent’ once. 

“But still, I don’t think Lance is a secret agent,” Hunk said nervously. “I mean, I’ve met his family and they all seem like nice folks! And they have a family business that Lance helps out with whenever he goes back to Varadero. I don’t think Lance would have the time to do any secret agent stuff.” 

A light bulb flickered to life above Keith’s head. 

“Family business or Family Business?” Keith asked. 

“I hear the capital letters in your voice but I don’t understand what it means,” Hunk said. 

“You don’t think… no,” Pidge shook her head. “No way. Lance is  _ Lance _ !” 

“Is it any less likely than him being a secret agent?” Keith argued back. “At least this theory doesn’t conflict with his family! And he did say his brother taught him to hotwire cars.” 

“What theory?” Shiro cut in to ask. “Please do tell because literally no one else knows what you’re talking about.” 

“Keith thinks,” Pidge said with a roll of her eyes, “that Lance is a member of a Mafia Family.” 

“What’s a Mafia Family,” Coran whispered to Allura. The whisper was lost in Hunk’s outburst. 

“What? No! Lance  _ can’t _ be a member of the Mafia! I mean, he does know how to pick locks for some reason--” Keith wrote ‘LOCK PICKING’ in block letters under ‘TOKYO DRIFTING’ “--and he’s really good at sneaking in and out of places and.” Hunk shook his head rapidly. “No, absolutely not. Lance isn’t a secret agent or a member of the Mafia and even if he was he’d tell me! There’s no way he’s hiding anything!” Hunk finished resolutely. “Absolutely no way.”

 

-o-

 

**Case 3: The Interrogation**

 

“You don’t scare me,” the Galra prisoner said, chin lifted in defiance. It would be much more believable if his voice hadn’t shook. “We’ve analysed the Paladins of Voltron and you’re just the joker of the group. The clown.” 

“Hm,” Lance hummed, completely nonchalant as he sat on the table in front of the prisoner. He was toying with a knife that he had taken from god-knows-where. “That’s nice, but don’t you see?” 

In a flash, the knife was buried into the table. 

Lance tilted his head to the side and his smile was obscured by shadows. 

“No one ever suspects the joker.” 

Lance then reached forward smoothly to tap the Galra’s temple. He was still smiling. 

“Food for thought.” 

“Holy shit,” Hunk whispered to himself. “Holy shit. They were right.”

 

-o-

 

They had managed to detain and capture a Galran soldier from a fleet that, quite stupidly, in Lance’s opinion, tried to attack them. Most of them escaped but they really only needed one. 

Unfortunately, the memory extraction device was still damaged after the whole issue with the ship’s corruption and hence they had to retrieve information the old-fashioned way. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the Galran soldier still hadn’t cracked under the combined questioning efforts of Shiro, Allura, Keith, Coran, Pidge, and even Hunk. 

To be fair, Keith had come the closest to breaking the soldier but Shiro openly didn’t allow any stabbing and that was where he failed. 

“Ugh!” Pidge stormed out of the room. “I can’t take this!” 

“Let’s break for the day and tackle this issue again tomorrow,” Shiro said. The rest of the team grunted in agreement and shuffled off, already tired from the fight and the failed interrogation sessions just made it worse. Lance was about the join them, but he paused. He still hadn’t gotten a turn with the Galra soldier. 

Technically, he could see why. Everyone else had something to bring to the table. Shiro was the leader and intimidating in general, Keith made the  _ perfect _ bad cop, especially in conjunction to Hunk’s good cop, Allura was a princess, Coran her advisor, and Pidge was a terrifying gremlin who ran on spite and anger about 75% of the time. Compared to them, Lance wasn’t much. But, he had one thing that they didn’t have. 

Theater experience.

 

-o-

 

“Where’s Lance?” Pidge asked. Everyone looked around, as if just realizing that Lance was missing. 

“Maybe he’s still with the soldier,” Coran offered. 

“I’ll go get him,” Hunk said. “It’s dinner time now and skipping meals isn’t good.”

 

-o-

 

Lance knew how to act, and he vaguely knew how an interrogation scene would go. In fiction, that is. 

His sister, Veronica, had been incredibly into writing fanfiction. 

Lance picked up the knife Keith had used to threaten the soldier before ambling into the room, gait smooth like a cat’s. He’s played villains before and he really needed to emulate a chaotic type of villain. The type who would kill just for fun. 

When Veronica wrote Dr. Who fanfiction, she had stanned The Master. 

With an air of uncaring around him, Lance hopped onto the table in front of the soldier. His heart pounded wildly in his chest but he schooled his face into a neutral expression. 

“Blue Paladin,” the Galran soldier hissed. “Come to question me?” 

“I’ve come,” Lance said with all the confidence he did not have, “to make you a deal.” 

The soldier laughed derisively. “And what sort of deal could you  _ possibly _ make with me?” he asked. 

“You talk as if you have the high ground,” Lance said with a smirk as he furiously dug through his memories for any line of grimdark fanfiction he could remember. “How amusing.” 

_ How many bones are there in a human body? Surely you don’t need so many. _

“How many bones are there in a Galran body? Surely you don’t need so many.” 

The soldier stiffened. 

“But of course, to reach your bones I’ve gotta skin you… I’ve skinned things before, y’know? It isn’t exactly difficult.” Lance flashed the knife he had at the soldier. “Of course, this isn’t a skinning knife, which might make skinning a little harder and slower, but I don’t want to make it easy. I want to make it hurt.” 

“You can’t harm me,” the soldier said. “Your Black Paladin forbade it.” 

“He isn’t here now, is he?” Lance said with a raised eyebrow. “And it’s much easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.” 

The soldier seemed a little unsure now. Good. Lance had to hold himself back from preening. He was an  _ excellent _ actor. 

“As for that deal…” Lance faltered but covered it up by pretending to ponder in an asshole manner. “Let’s see…” 

_ You could give in to me, or be thrown out into space.  _

“You could give us the information we need, or be thrown out into space,” Lance said. “How long can you stay out there, I wonder?” 

“Even if I die--” the soldier started, but Lance cut them off. 

“No, no, I don’t want you to die. Why would I want you to die? I just want to have some fun!” he said brightly. 

_ How long can a human survive in space without a spacesuit? Or any form of protection? _

“How long can a Galra survive in space without a suit or any form of protection? I’ll just leave you out there for a tick, and then we’ll gradually increase from there! And don’t worry about getting hurt. If you do get hurt, I’ll just pop you right into one of our nifty Altean healing pods and you’ll be good to go again.” 

The soldier’s breath was coming in short puffs now. Lance leant in a little closer. 

“You should be good for a dobash or two, but it wouldn’t be pretty,” he murmured. “Tried this with other humans and apparently due to the lack of pressure in space, they start to swell and gas bubbles form in their blood. And the air in their body would rupture their lungs due to said lack of pressure. Would it be the same for you Galra, I wonder.” 

“You’ve… you’ve done this with others of your species before,” the soldier asked. He seemed a little horrified. Lance shrugged. 

“Hey, it’s nothing like what your druids do… or is it? Are they motivated by the Empire or by curiosity? Because I’m motivated by curiosity. All of you are just so fascinating, I can barely risk the urge to strap down down and...” Lance gently ran the knife down the side of the soldier’s face. He felt a little bad when he saw how hard the soldier was shaking, but the team needed the information. “See just what makes you all function. It’s a pity that our leader doesn’t allow me to do as I please but… if you don’t want to cooperate, maybe he’ll be so frustrated he’ll let me have free reign?” 

Lance mustered up all the childish glee he could find in his body and plastered it onto his face. There wasn’t much, considering the situation, but he could supplement it with more acting. He was  _ such _ a good actor. 

“Oh, I changed my mind! Don’t do it, don’t tell him anything! That’s the deal I want to make with you! Don’t tell him anything and you’ll be released into my tender loving care! It’s been so long since I’ve had someone to play with!” Lance clasped his hands together like a child. The Galran soldier looked incredibly sick. Nice! He bought into it! Lance hadn’t been sure if he could pull off unhinged scientific researcher but he now knew he could. 

“No, you’re bluffing. You have to be.” The soldier seemed to be trying to convince himself now. “You don’t scare me. We’ve analysed the Paladins of Voltron and you’re just the joker of the group. The clown.” 

Oh holy shit. This was almost exactly the same scenario that Veronica had written in one of the fics Lance had beta-ed. He could recite the script word for word. 

_ That’s nice, but don’t you see? _

“Hm, that’s nice, but don’t you see?” Lance said, fiddling with the knife. It slipped out of his hands and his heart nearly slammed out of his chest before he turned the slip into a cool move where he stabbed the knife into the table. 

Hell yeah. Who was the king of improv? Lance McClain. 

He tilted his head to the side in what he hoped to be a villainous manner. A menacing Shaft Head Tilt. 

_ No one ever suspects the joker. _

“No one ever suspects the joker.”

_ Lean forward. Tap the temple condescendingly.  _

_ Food for thought _ . 

“Food for thought.”

Lance hopped off the table, plucking the knife out of it in one smooth motion. Thank god. The entire charade would have been ruined if he fumbled there. 

Lance strolled out of the room in a leisurely gait, although every cell in his body was screaming at him to power walk out of there, find a small corner, and scream into his hands. God that had been utterly nerve wracking. 

He stopped short when he saw Hunk a distance away, staring. Oh god. Had Hunk seen his acting? Normally he wouldn’t care but he had played such a tropey, embarrassing character. If Hunk saw anything he might just die. 

But he couldn’t break character now, the soldier could still hear him. 

“How long were you standing there?” Lance asked. He turned his head a little to gesture to the soldier, silently telling Hunk that they couldn’t talk around the soldier. Hunk blinked once, twice and then shook his head. 

“I just arrived,” Hunk said. “I’m here to tell you dinner’s ready.” Nice. He could always trust Hunk to have his back.

“Cool. Now come on, I’m starving.”

 

-o-

 

The next day, it only took a smile and a wave from Lance before the Galran soldier spilled the beans.  

Lance deserved an Oscar. He deserved  _ all _ the Oscars.

 

-o-

 

“Guys, I’m telling you, he wasn’t the Lance we knew! Or maybe he was always the Lance we knew, just buried under the Lance we knew!” Hunk gesticulated wildly. “He said it himself,  _ no one ever suspects the joker _ .” 

Keith pinned a joker card up to the board. No one knew where he got it from. 

“Hunk,” Shiro said carefully. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for this. We could ask Lance about it.” 

“He made is really clear that he didn’t want to be asked! He said to be ‘How long were you standing there’ and then looked at the soldier with cold eyes! It was terrifying!” Hunk wailed. “And then when I didn’t press the matter, he looked so relieved it was almost illegal! I can’t believe my best buddy was hiding such a big secret from me! Doesn’t he trust me? Does he believe that we’d treat him differently when we find out? Oh god, maybe he thinks that we’re going to shun him if we find out. What if he leaves? He can’t leave Voltron, he’s my best friend! We can’t confront him on this.” 

“Hunk, breathe for me,” Pidge said. “Take a deep breath.” 

Hunk realized he hadn’t been breathing. He took a breath as Pidge said. 

“Good. Now, exhale.” 

Hunk exhaled. 

“Follow my instructions. Breathe in, breathe out. Breath in…” 

Keith folded his arms and stared confrontationally at Shiro. 

“Is it like the sandworms?” Keith asked smugly. Shiro sighed. 

“Keith.” 

“Look, I’m just saying that Pidge and Hunk believe me. I don’t know about Allura and Coran but I’m sure they’ll see reason soon.” 

“I…” Shiro. “I guess I’ll believe it when I see it.”

 

-o-

 

**Case 4: The Training Room Incident**

 

Lance still hadn’t given Keith back his knife and he didn’t really know how to. So now he was stuck with a knife. 

Lance doesn’t know what the heck he could do with a knife. 

Team training had ended but Lance wanted to stay back to run through a few simulations. He was the best sharpshooter on the team, and he was talented but talent was nothing without hard work. 

But now he was done with the simulation and here he was sitting on the ground, staring at a knife. 

The knife itself was a little weird, with a split down the middle. What was it for, aesthetic? 

Lance fiddled a bit with the knife when a part at the bottom came loose and-- 

Oh. Oh gosh. This wasn’t just any knife, this was a  _ butterfly knife _ , one of the coolest knives there was! Marco had one and Marco was the coolest brother there was. Lance wanted to be like him so much. 

He remembered a few cool tricks that Marco had taught him when he was younger. And there were also a few cool butterfly knife tricks he had seen in video games! Keith wouldn’t mind him playing around with the knife, right? It wasn’t as if Keith knew he had it. 

He twirled the butterfly knife a few times in his hand, almost surprised that he still had some of the muscle memory for the tricks and the reflexes to support him in the places muscle memory could not. 

Lance flipped the butterfly knife around him and then up into the air before leaping up to catch it. He swung the knife down in a beautiful arc, stabbing into an imaginary villain with triumph. Holy shit, he couldn’t believe he pulled it off. This was one of the moves Marco and he had practiced again and again, with blunt butterfly knives, just so they could emulate a video game character they both liked. Lance totally killed it. He wished Marco were here to see this. 

High on his victory, he turned around, only to freeze in place when he saw Shiro standing in the doorway. Holy shit, Shiro had just seen Lance pretend to be a video game character. 

Shiro’s eyes slowly dragged down to the knife in Lance’s hand. 

Holy shit, Shiro had just seen Lance pretend to be a video game character  _ with Keith’s knife. _

Lance immediately hid the knife behind his back. Shiro’s eyes flickered back up to his again. 

They stared at each other. 

“Well, look at the time!” Lance said, voice cracking. “It’s time for me to go. Seeya, Shiro!” Immediately after saying those words, he bolted from the room. He really hoped that Shiro wouldn’t bring this up ever again because if he did, Lance might possibly never recover from the shame. 

 

-o-

 

“--and then he did a complicated maneuver involving throwing the knife up and catching it midair. It looked too smooth to be something he came up on the spot, he was definitely trained in this, whatever this is,” Shiro said. 

“And?” Keith said with raised eyebrows. 

“And you’re right Keith,” Shiro sighed. “You were right.” 

“I don’t understand,” Allura said. “Lance is hiding something. Is this something bad?” 

“Not necessarily,” Shiro said. “And usually I’d just let it be but when I caught him practicing with a knife, he looked embarrassed and ashamed, almost terrified. He didn’t want me to know, doesn’t want  _ us _ to know. Maybe, like what Hunk said, he’s afraid that we might treat him differently or perhaps even shun him if we find out.” 

“We’d never do that!” Hunk protested. “He’s our friend!” 

“But does he know that?” Shiro asked. Hunk couldn’t answer. No one could. 

“Alright, so we need to assure Lance that we would not abandon him if he comes clean about his past. Why don’t we just tell him?” Allura asked. 

“We can’t! It’s kind of a breach of privacy and it might make him mistrust us!” Pidge protested. “He needs to come to us with it, like my reveal that I'm a girl.” 

“And all we can do until then is to make sure that he knows that we’re with him, no matter what.”

 

-o-

 

Lance sneezed, almost messing up his carefully applied face mask. Was someone talking about him? Only nice things, he hoped. 


	2. inhuman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lance starts catching feelings. very unfortunate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all exocara here ayakocho's gonna be busy for a long time so buckle in for a rough journey because 
> 
> [kyoko sakura voice] my city now
> 
> also thanks wyrvel for betaing for us!

Lance had to admit that Keith was cute when he was talking about things that he was passionate about, like piloting or motorcycles or… cryptozoology, apparently.

Lance really liked it when Keith’s eyes lit up, emblazoned with a simmering flame as he rattled on and on, hands gesturing wildly and emphatically. It was such an incredible difference from the normal, closed-off Keith that he was used to that Lance couldn’t help but indulge himself.

Also, hearing Keith go on and on about cryptids was kinda funny, for the first fifteen minutes at least. But Keith started bringing up actual dates of sightings and quoted, word for literal word, the testimonies of the people who ‘saw’ the cryptids, and remained completely serious about it. Dead serious.

An hour later, Lance realized that this beautiful disaster of a boy  _genuinely_ believed that Bigfoot, El Chupacabra, and various other cryptids were _real._

“--and not to mention Mothman,” Keith said.

“Mothman,” Lance whispered disbelievingly under his breath and that was when he realized. He liked a boy who believed in the existence of Mothman. He didn’t know what it said about him, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.

-o-

“Okay,” Keith said. Despite the matter being of relevance, Keith wanted to talk to Shiro about it first before consulting the rest of the group in their strange, unorganized Lance-Is-Hiding-Something meetings. “I know you said a while back that Lance can’t possibly be a sandworm but--”

“Holy shit,” Shiro interrupted, “are you, actually, seriously, right now, saying that Lance McClain is an real life sandworm.”

“No!” Keith shot back. “Not a sandworm! Logically impossible because Lance lived in a seaside town, in Cuba, while sandworms are predominantly desert creatures that shy away from moisture! Lance isn’t a sandworm because if he was, he’d die because he actually goes swimming a lot, not that I’m paying attention to him or that I want to join him or anything, or that I try to walk past the pool area whenever I think he’s insi-”

“I’m going to put you out of your misery here and ask what you think Lance is,” Shiro said in a long suffering voice. Keith felt gratitude so immense he could have hugged Shiro.

“Mothman,” Keith said.

Shiro looked at Keith. He looked at Keith for a very long time.

“Keith,” he finally said. He didn’t need to say anything more. Keith knew what the non-believer was implying.

“I’m just saying, it’s a possibility that he could be related to Mothman!”

“Keith.”

“I mean, he’s really good at flying!” Keith paused for a moment. “Don’t tell him I said that.”

“You’re good at flying,” Shiro said. “Why can’t you be Mothman?”

“Well that’s obvious,” Keith answered irritatedly. “It’s because I’m already half-Galra.”

“That doesn’t even--” Shiro brought his mechanical arm to his face in a knee-jerk reaction and winced at the painful, painful impact. “Okay. I’m good at flying, why can’t _I_ be Mothman?”

“Because you suck,” Keith said bluntly. “And you don’t believe in sandworms.”

Shiro stared at him. “And Lance does?”

“Lance listened to me without interrupting with inane non-believer questions, _like you do,_ when I talked to him about sandworms and other cryptozoological topics for a whole hour!” Keith said. “He did seem a little concerned about halfway through--”

“I can’t imagine why,” Shiro muttered.

“--which made me think that he might be related to the topic!” Keith forged on, ignoring Shiro. “And when I mentioned Mothman, he whispered ‘Mothman’ under his breath! Obviously, he got startled when I mentioned something so closely related to him and couldn’t control his reaction!”

Shiro sighed. “Keith, have you maybe considered he was just--”

“No,” Keith said.

Shiro didn’t bother saying anything else, simply looking up to the ceiling with the air of a man who had fought a thousand similar battles and lost every single one.

-o-

Lance was incredibly tired due to a number of reasons that did not include thinking about Keith and his laughter and his eyes and how much Keith loved _Mothman._

However, non-Keith-induced tiredness or not, he still had to fulfil his paladin duties and dragged himself down to the planet… he’ll ask Coran for the name later. The people of this planet had odd eyes, fur, and… wings? Lance squinted at the beings in front of him.

Yeap. Definitely wings.

“We are thankful for your interest in joining the Voltron coalition,” Allura started. Lance tuned her out soon as she continued her usual diplomatic speech, directing his attention to the large, glowing crystals that littered the entire room. He wondered if they had the same properties as Balmera crystals.

Making sure that none of the others were looking at him, Lance positioned himself such that he was closer to one of the crystals and gently placed a hand on it. The smooth surface was cool to the touch and the light it emitted pulsed slowly.

With his attention focused on the glowing crystal, Lance failed to see Keith looking at him intensely.

After what felt like forever, Allura nodded at the leader of the planet and stood up. Finally, the meeting was over and Lance was free to do whatever he wanted to do, like sleep and not think about Keith…’s complex feelings on Mothman.

The inhabitants of the planet began to usher the Paladins towards their accommodations and Lance whirled around, eager to leave, and stepped right smack into a glowing crystal. Ow. Who put that crystal there?

“Lance, you alright?” Hunk asked, gently pulling Lance away from the crystal. Hunk had always been gentle but, for some reason, Lance felt like he was being extra-gentle with Lance lately. It was kind of weird.

“Haha, yeah,” Lance joked, cracking a smile to mask his embarrassment. “I guess the light was so entrancing that I literally couldn’t look away!”

“I… see,” Hunk said, frowning slightly. “You know that I’ll support you, no matter what, right?”

He, and the rest of the team to various extents, had been dropping lines like that recently too. It was _really_ weird.

“Yeah I know, bud.” Lance gestured to the other Paladins who were doing a very bad job of pretending not to look at them. “We should go though! Don’t want to keep the others waiting!”

Hunk gave Lance one more soul-searching look before drawing back and nodding.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

-o-  

The walk to their accommodations, which were actually what seemed to be the planet’s equivalent of a castle, was long and severely tested Lance’s self-control. He was either on the verge of falling asleep while walking or taking in the scenery, which was exclusively glowing crystals and Keith walking next to him, and of the two, well… Keith wasn’t exactly hard to look at.

Because it really wasn’t fair how Keith looked so soft in the glow of the crystalline lights, which were everywhere, practically inescapable since they were both the planet’s version of a lamp and also the planet’s only source of light. And so Lance was cursed to only be able to look at beautiful picture of Keith and a backdrop of luminescent crystals from the corner of his eye.

So absorbed in not-looking at Keith, Lance completely missed the small but obvious rock in his path and painfully collided, face first, into another crystal. Lance groaned in pain. He couldn’t believe he had literally fallen for Keith.

Lance immediately decided not to digest the words he had just thought with his brain.

Lance just sort of… stood there for a while, face still pressed up against the crystal, as he thought about life in general and how low he had sunk.

“Lance?” Hunk was calling for him. Reluctantly, Lance pushed himself off the crystal and gave one of his charming grins.

“Sorry man. Crystals, y’know?” Lance said.

“Yeah man,” Hunk said, even though he clearly couldn’t have understood a word of what Lance was saying. “I know.”

Hunk really was the best friend Lance could ever hope to have.

-o-

Lance might have liked the crystals at first, thought them charming and calming with their luminescence and colour, but not anymore. Not when he had not one, not two, but _three_ instances of faceplanting right into these crystals.

Why there was a crystal _in the middle of the goddamn hallway_ would forever remain a mystery to Lance because if he had to interact with _any_ crystal _one more time,_ he’d combust.

He glared angrily at the crystal who dared to interrupt the journey to his room. It was the crystal’s fault for being in the way and totally not Lance’s fault for walking with his eyes closed.

“Hey,” a voice said from behind him and Lance decided, then and there, that the universe was out to get him.

“Mullet,” he replied easily, still staring at the crystal. The light was already leaving afterimages in his brain but if Keith was going to mock him about walking into crystals, Lance would not give him the privilege of having his reaction.

There was a brief moment of silence before Keith said, “They crystals on this planet… they’re beautiful aren’t they?”

For a moment, Lance felt like he was having an out of body experience. His soul ripped away from his mortal body and entering another plane of existence from sheer disbelief. Of course. Of fucking course. His fellow paladin, friend, rival, _crush(?) (!) (no, ?),_ Keith Akira Kogane, would think that the very crystals that had tried to kill Lance three times and counting, were beautiful.

Two paths stretched out in front of Lance. In one, he could tell Keith that there was nothing he wanted to do more than to destroy every single crystal on this planet and Keith would look at him in disgust and never want anything to do with him ever again.

In the other, he could say,

“Yeah I guess.” Lance shrugged, unwilling to make eye contact with Keith. If that meant that he burnt his eyes out looking at the crystal light, so be it. “They’re just so… bright. And nice! And bright. And pretty! And… bright.”

Lance figured that he was pretty articulate for someone who had been awake for approximately thirty-six hours and counting.

“Yes,” Keith said. Was Lance slowly losing his mind to sleep or did Keith sound _smug_ for some reason?

A strange silence descended on the both of them as Lance zoned in and out of sleep. It was shorty broken by Keith clearing his throat.

“So,” Keith said in an oddly casual and rather out-of-character manner, “would you like to walk with me through the garden?”

“The garden,” Lance repeated. “The rock garden, full of the glowing rocks.”

“Crystals, but yeah.”

Lance thought about it as the world swam in front of his eyes.

“Well,” he started slowly. “I’d love to go to the rock garden with you but right now I kinda just wanna…”

As Lance lost control of his body and the crystal in front of him surged up to meet his face once again, his last thought was ‘Fourth _fucking_ time’.

-o-

“It happened not once, not twice, but _four separate times,”_ Keith emphasized, “And everyone knows that moths are attracted to light!”

Shiro sighed deeply and tiredly.

“Keith--”

“What do Mothmen even _eat?”_ Hunk interrupted, panicking. “What if Lance is malnourished due to the fact that Mothmen and humans have different diets? Is that why he passed out? I’m _killing_ my best friend!”

“Oh my god,” Shiro muttered under his breath, hands pressed together in front of his face in a manner akin to a prayer.  

“Cloth? Do they eat cloth? This makes so much sense! Lance used to have a million blankets back at the garrison. He must be starving!”

“Hunk,” Pidge began, and then interrupted herself in a panicked manner, “Lance is coming! Quickly, act natural!”

Keith managed to completely flip his factboard over right before Lance walked into the room. Lance paused awkwardly at the doorway, one hand still raised up from opening the door.

“Sorry, was I interrupting something?” Lance asked, eyes flickering from paladin to paladin. “Because I can go if you want.”

“You aren’t interrupting anything,” Pidge said from her spot on the sofa. Her laptop was on her lap and open, but the screen was completely dark. Keith thought about leaning against his factboard casually but the risk of knocking it down kept him standing ramrod straight and awkward.

“Right, because I did hear discussion that stopped immediately when I came into the room,” Lance said, “I may not mind you having ‘super secret meetings’ without me, but--”

“We were talking about what Mothmen eat!” Hunk blurted out. “Do you know what they eat? Do they eat cloth? Do they eat what moths eat? What do moths eat anyway?”

“What… Mothmen eat.” Lance blinked a few times. He seemed to shocked to the bone, mouth opening and closing, trying to find words and failing miserably. Finally, he settled with, “Why are you guys talking about _that?!”_

Lance’s tone was disbelieving, almost outraged and defensive. Yet another piece of evidence to show that he was Mothman.

“We just want to know what Mothmen eat,” Hunk said.

“Then why is Shiro… like that?” Lance asked. Keith turned to Shiro to see what Lance was talking about only to see that Shiro had moved to a corner of the room, and was just staring at the wall.

“It’s because he sucks and doesn’t believe in Mothman,” Keith explained. Lance made a quiet sound of understanding and didn’t pursue the subject.

“So…” Hunk started casually. “Do you think the Mothman eats cloth?”

“Uh.” Lance thought for a while. “No? A common misconception is that the Mothman is actually a giant humanoid moth but it’s been shown in evidence, particularly in the first encounters, that the Mothman isn’t exactly a moth but actually resembles a bat. So instead of having a moth-like diet, maybe they have a bat-like diet? Then again, the Mothman may be an extraterrestrial or extradimensional creature, so it wouldn’t make sense to compare it to animals that exist on our planet and why the fuck do I know so many things about Mothman?” He stared vaguely into the middle distance, distressed that he had accidentally revealed far more knowledge about Mothman than the common person would have known.

“Yeah, why _do_ you know so much about Mothman?” Pidge squinted at Lance in suspicion. Lance’s eyes flitted to Keith before fixating onto the floor.

“Don’t wanna talk about it,” he forced through gritted teeth. “Now if we’re done, I gotta go.”

Lance didn’t wait for anyone to answer before he quickly strode out of the room. Everyone looked at Keith.

“Isn’t that damning proof that Lance is Mothman?” Keith said.

“Nah.” Pidge had a shit-eating grin on her face. “But it’s pretty strong proof of something else.”

**Theory One: Lance is Mothman**

**Status: Debunked**

-o-

The mildly familiar act of piling pillows upon pillows on the area just before the sofa was calming to Lance. A blanket lay on the floor beneath everything, and a stack of pillows lay on the right and left sides, leaning against the sofa to ensure that they would not fall. A pile of comfortable blankets and quilts, along with a few small and soft pillows lay in the center.

It was small and cosy, just the way Lance liked it. All that was left was to find one more blanket to drape over everything and his pillow fort would be complete.

For a moment, Lance felt a flicker of guilt about not making enough space for others to join in, but that guilt was quickly cooled by the thought of the secret meetings the team had been having without him. And they thought they were so sneaky too, thought he didn’t know.

Lance may like to joke around, may like to take things easy, but he wasn’t an idiot.

Old insecurities clawed their way up to him, curling around his throat, claws sinking into his flesh, whispering _not good enough, not good enough._

Lance shook his head rapidly and smacked his hands on both sides of his face. No, he wouldn’t fall back into that line of thinking again. Lance was an important and valued member of the team, and there was probably a valid reason as to why he was being left out on those meetings.

Didn’t mean he had to like it, though.

Lance raised his hand to activate the door but, to his surprise, the door opened first to reveal a person in a black and purple suit. It took a second for Lance to recognise the uniform of the Blade of Marmora.

“Oh hey! Is it that time already? Sorry I must have lost track of time.” Lance was not looking forward to the upcoming lecture from Allura and/or Shiro about being absent without valid reason when allies came to visit them.

The Blade wasn’t answering him and, with the mask on, Lance really didn’t know what they were thinking.

“So, uh, is there anything you need? This room is pretty far from the normal lodging area.” Lance had deliberately picked out a place that not many would usually stumble over by chance to build his pillow fort, not exactly in the mood to spend time with his fellow paladins at the moment of choosing.

“It appears that I got lost looking for the lodging area,” the Blade said, jerking their head to look to the side when Lance had spoken. “I apologise for intruding.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Lance stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. “I was just leaving to get something anyway.”

“Like.” The Blade paused for a moment. “Cushions?”

“Yeah!” Lance nodded. Finally, another person who understood the intricacies of pillow fort building. “And blankets and food!”

“Food…” the Blade echoed, seemingly deep in thought. Lance wasn’t sure if he should ask. In his experience, the Blades tended to be withdrawn and secretive about themselves. Or maybe that was just Keith.

“Y’know, snacks. Preferably things that are easy to eat when you’re inside the…” Lance trailed off, suddenly aware that the word ‘pillow fort’ may seem a little juvenile.

“Nest,” the Blade finished for him.

“Nest,” Lance agreed. That was probably the Galran word for pillow fort.

They walked in silence for a while as Lance led him back to the lodging area.

“Uh,” Lance began, awkwardly cutting through the quiet. “Like, I don’t know if you will but, um, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell my team about my nest?” The word ‘nest’ felt a little strange on his tongue.

“Of course!” the Blade exclaimed. “I would never do that! Nests are important and deeply private places!” The outrage was quickly replaced by guilt and Lance could see the Blade’s entire body drooping. It was kind of cute. “I really do apologise for intruding onto your nest. If I had known, I would have knocked and waited for you to exit.”

“It’s alright, pretty sure I said that before,” Lance said. “You didn’t know and there was no harm done.”

“Thank you,” the Blade said quietly. Lance wondered why they seemed to place a lot of importance in the whole pillow fort. Was it a Galra thing? Lance opened his mouth, about to ask, but was interrupted by the sight of Allura and Kolivan rounding the corner.

“Lance,” Allura said coolly and Lance had to hold back a wince. “So there you are.”

“Sorry for not showing up,” Lance apologised. “I lost track of time.”

“Of course. See to it that it doesn’t happen again. Well then--”

“It is not his fault!” the Blade blurted out. “He was nesting.”

Something in the air changed, right there and then, and everyone looked at Lance.

“Are you sure about this?” Kolivan asked. He seemed to be frowning.

“Yes. I saw the nest and it was a perfect nest, but it was an accident! I already said sorry!”

“Were you really constructing a nest, Lance?” Allura asked. Lance really didn’t know how to answer that question, having the gut feeling that ‘nests’ and ‘pillow forts’ _might be_ two completely different things.

The Blade gasped. “Oh no,” they said quietly. “You asked me not to tell anyone. I am so dreadfully sorry.”

“A bit too late for that,” Lance said dryly.

“Meht,” Kolivan said. The Blade beside Lance straightened up. “Go to your quarters right now.”

“Understood,” the Blade said and walked off. Kolivan turned his stern stare onto Lance, making him squirm.

“Uh,” Lance said.

“I apologise for the insensitive behavior of my Blade,” Kolivan said.

“Really,” Lance said, exasperation creeping back into his voice. “No harm done.”

“Still, it is rude. I will see to it that they issue a formal apology to you. Blue Paladin, Princess Allura” Kolivan inclined his head forward and then left before Lance could convince him that, _really,_ everything was fine.

“So, you were late because you were… nesting,” Allura said. Lance made a face and Allura must have taken that as an affirmation because she continued talking.

“Why didn’t you want anyone to know,” she asked, her voice soft. Lance shrugged at that, unwilling to tell her that it was because he was being petty and insecure and wanted his pillow fort all to himself.

“Just wanted some time alone, I guess,” Lance muttered. “I kind of want to go get some things now so if you could…”

“Oh, yes, of course.” Allura shifted to the side and Lance continued walking down the hall.

He could feel her eyes on his back the entire time.

-o-

“It has been brought to my knowledge,” Allura addressed the remaining Paladins and Coran, “that Lance may be part-Galran.”

“And why might you say that?” Shiro asked. Keith exploded.

“Oh so you give _her_ the benefit of doubt but when I talk about my theories, I am told they are ‘nonsensical’ and ‘impossible’.” Keith somehow made air quotes look angry.

“That’s because Mothman doesn’t exist,” Shiro shot back immediately.

_“Mothman absolutely exists you filthy non-belie--”_

“Lance was found nesting earlier today,” Allura cut through the silence. Coran gasped. The Paladins remained silent, staring at Allura blankly.

“Is that… supposed to mean something?” Pidge asked.

“ _Nesting!”_ Allura emphasized. “Galras who nest only nest when they are severely stressed! And when one of the Blades stumbled across it, he told the Blade not to tell anyone! Could this be what Lance is hiding from us?”

Hunk made a wounded noise. “But why would he hide this from us? It can’t be because he’s afraid that we might push him away; Keith’s half-Galra and we accepted him with open arms!”

“I had originally planned on leaving this alone, but judging from the shame that Lance all but radiated when I asked him about his nesting, this situation cannot be allowed to fester. Keith,” Allura turned to Keith and Keith resisted the urge to point to himself. “Being part-Galran yourself, I leave this to you.”

Keith’s mouth dropped open.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Shiro said. Keith stared at him in open betrayal.

“Meeting adjourned, then,” Allura said, leaving Keith to wonder just how in the world he was going to help Lance with the whole part-Galran thing when he couldn’t even help _himself_.

-o-

It took a long while for Keith to find Lance.

He hadn’t been in his room, the kitchen, the recreation room, the pool, or the Blue Lion’s Hangar. For a brief moment, Keith panicked, believing that Lance had taken a pod and left the castle, but he quickly banished the thought. If there had been a pod missing, Allura would have informed them immediately.

In the end, Keith found Lance in a relatively deserted part of the castle, tucked far away from everyone else.

“Um,” Keith said and Lance paused in the middle of what seemed to be his attempt at draping blankets over pillows. He stared back at Keith with equally large eyes.

“Uh.” Lance dropped the blanket he was holding and placed both his hands behind his back. “Keith. Hey. Didn’t think you’d be here.”

Allura was right, Lance _was_ trying to hide this from the others.

Perhaps Keith, if he had more interaction with other humans, would have realized that what Lance was making was called a ‘blanket fort’ and it was something that other humans did for fun. However, Keith had lived in either mildly unwelcoming foster homes or an isolated desert shack in the middle of the nowhere and hence had no idea what a ‘blanket fort’ was.

Keith looked over the nest and something in him purred about how comfortable it seemed. A perfect place for him to rest and destress in. Allura said that he should bond with Lance, right? Maybe he could learn how to make nests from Lance.

“So, this is your nest,” Keith began. He saw Lance make a face.

“Nest… is that a Galra thing?” Lance asked, as if he didn’t already know the answer. Keith supposed that Lance was very into denying that he was a Galra, which Keith could pretty much relate to.

“Yeah,” Keith nodded. “Apparently Galrans make them when they are stressed.”

Lance’s eyebrows shot up at that and he turned back to his nest with a look of consideration on his face. Keith couldn’t help but let his eyes drift back to the nest.

It really did look _incredibly_ comfortable.

Lance coughed lightly and Keith’s gaze snapped back to Lance to see the look of what appeared to be amused fondness on Lance’s face.

“Well,” Lance drawled out, “if you wanted to get into my nest, you could just say so.”

Keith flushed.

“No, I don’t!” he spluttered. “I just thought that it looked nice, that’s all!” Lance was snickering. “Stop laughing at me!”

Lance didn’t stop laughing as he went back to adjusting the blanket on top of his nest. His shoulders were still shaking as he went down onto his knees and shuffled into the nest.

There was a moment of silence where Keith fidgeted, unsure of what to do with himself. Allura sent Keith here to bond with Lance, but Lance was squirreled away in his nest? Was Keith just supposed to leave?

Lance’s head popped back out.

“What are you waiting for, Mullet?” Lance asked with a raised eyebrow. “A royal invitation? Get in here!”  

Keith got in there before he knew what he was doing.

Before, Keith would have believed that being in a small, narrow space with Lance would be mildly uncomfortable at the very best. However, he had been proved wrong. Perhaps it was the nest, or perhaps it was the fact that Keith felt a lot more comfortable around Lance than he’d thought, but sitting down in the middle of a bunch of pillows and blankets, with their faces illuminated by the soft glow of some light-emitting rock (and the part of Keith that still hadn’t fully let go of the Mothman theory took careful note of this), felt _nice._

This wasn’t exactly the first time that Keith had been so close to Lance, but it was probably the first time that it was so intimate. This close, Keith could see every detail of Lance’s face, from the slight curls of the brown hair that framed his face so perfectly, to the constellation of freckles that dusted right over his nose and cheekbones, to the blown pupils of his ocean blue eyes.

Wait.

Keith was suddenly very aware that he had been staring intensely at Lance for at least a minute. Immediately, he averted his gaze to the ground.

“Is this a quilt?” Keith asked, desperate to start any conversation in order to forget the fact that he had been blatantly staring at Lance. It had been a while since he had last done that, and he had thought that he had been getting better too.

Because Lance was really good-looking, Keith had to give him that. But Lance wasn’t just easy on the eyes, Lance was caring and sensitive to the needs of others, always ready with a pick-up line or a bad joke to lighten up the mood when it got too heavy. Lance was attentive and kind and listened to Keith talk about his interests, never once dismissing them. Lance was a lot of things that Keith yearned for, but knew that he could never have.

“I guess it is?” Lance said. “The Altean version of a quilt anyway. You wouldn’t believe the amount of work I had to put in to find all of these…”

As Keith let Lance’s voice wash over him, he felt the tension and stress he had accumulated over the long period of time they had been in space slowly melt away. He hoped that this counted as bonding with Lance, because Keith was going to melt into the pillows and blankets right now and probably be incapable of moving for the next hour or so.

-o-

When Keith woke up, he was lying in the middle of a mass of pillows and blankets, very clearly tucked in.

The butterflies he thought he had crushed to death a long time ago started fluttering in his stomach once again.

_Shit._

-o-

Lance was reminding Pidge to take a break and sleep more because, honestly, the bags under her eyes could store entire universes at that point, when Meht gasped.

“You are an omega!” they exclaimed. “You are a perfect omega!”

“Meht!” Kolivan’s voice rang out harshly.

“Oops,” Meht shrugged. “But in my defence, I did tell Commander Antok that my biggest flaw was my inability to keep my mouth shut.”

However, Lance did not hear the conversation, too busy being frozen in terror because _fanfiction was real, oh my god, a/b/o exists in this giant universe and my sister can never find out about this._

Allura snapped her fingers, drawing Lance’s attention out of his haze of disbelief and onto her. “An omega! Of course!” she said. He stared at her with mounting horror and decided that he had to defuse the situation right there and then before talk about self-lubricating assholes started.

“I don’t know about others but we _humans,”_ Lance stressed the word, “don’t have those alpha beta omega things back on earth.”

“And yet,” Allura said with a smug smile, “you know about alphas.”

Lance could feel his soul leaving his body.

“You know about betas!” Meht said excitedly, ignoring Kolivan’s increasingly harsher calls of their name. “You are now officially my favorite human!”

“What are betas, exactly?” Allura asked.

Even though Meht was still wearing their mask, nearly everyone could sense their shit-eating grin like an aura. “Betas are--”

“Meht!” Kolivan barked out. “You will not discuss such… things with our allies!”

“Oh boo,” Meht sighed and pulled back. “And I wanted to talk with Lance about beta rights too. Surely he’ll hear me out; he’s such a perfect omega, after all!”

Lance stood up and walked out of the room, ignoring anyone who tried to stop him.

He was so done with this.

-o-

“I don’t understand,” Allura said. “Why did he react so strongly to that? Is it… because he was disgusted by being Galran?”

“It seems that he was more distressed by the idea of being an omega,” Hunk said.

“But why would he?” Allura started pacing. “There’s nothing wrong in being an omega! Omegas are kind and caring and excellent at interpersonal relationships!”

Shiro frowned. “What are alphas and omegas? Lance was right in saying that humans don’t have anything like that.”

“Alpha and omega, or alpha brain and omega brain, are simple classifications about the thinking process of Galras,” Allura explained.

“For example, Shiro, Keith, Pidge.” Allura nodded at them. “The three of you would be considered Alphas. Alphas are usually those who are more cool and analytical, believing in mind over matter. On the other hand, they tend to be incredibly out of tune with the emotions of both themselves and the people around them.”

“Sounds about right,” Pidge said.

“Omegas, which Hunk and Lance would be classified under, tend to be more empathetic and sensitive to the needs and well-being of the people around them,” Allura continued. “But they tend to put the needs of others above themselves and other tasks they are supposed to do.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Shiro said.

“Exactly!” Allura exclaimed. “That’s why I don’t understand why Lance reacted in such a manner!”

Kolivan stepped forward. “If I may interject, Princess Allura, it has been ten thousand years since you have come into contact with the Galra, and the changes put in place may explain the reason for your Paladin’s behavior.”

Allura nodded at Kolivan, allowing him to take the floor.

“Thank you. Under Zarkon’s reign, alphas have been glorified, and omegas have been… pushed aside to say the least. Due to their empathetic nature, they have the tendency to sympathize with prisoners of the Galran Empire and are at higher risk of defecting. As such, after they have been classified as omega after a test, they are pushed through a rigorous and rather cruel program before they are able to serve the Empire.” Kolivan’s face turned dark and it was obvious that whatever the program was, it was incredibly unethical.

“But how does that explain Lance’s reaction?” Hunk asked.

“The Omegan Initiation Rite, as the program is called, is common knowledge to all Galran,” Kolivan said. “If he is truly Galran as you theorized -- a theory I highly doubt -- perhaps he is afraid that since his status as an omega has been discovered, he would be forced through the program.”

Allura’s eyes were wide and her hands flew to her mouth. “We would _never,”_ she said vehemently.

“To Galrans who have been classified as omega, they truly believe that there is no escaping the Omegan Initiation Rite,” Kolivan said gravely. “Even Meht, who had been classified as an omega…” He trailed off and looked around the room.

Meht was nowhere to be seen.

Kolivian let out a deep sigh.

-o-

“So, alphas think with their mind and omegas think with their heart?” Things were so much better than Lance could have ever predicted.

“Yes!” Meht said. “That is the gist of things. I apologise, I had not been aware that alpha and omega mean something different in Earthling culture.”

“That’s alright,” Lance said, already feeling less horrified with the universe in general. There was, however, one more thing. “What’s a beta?”

He could _feel_ Meht’s grin. “You see, while alphas think with their head and omegas think with their hearts… betas -- which is actually more of an ‘immature’ joke classification than anything -- think with their reproductive organs.”

Lance choked. “You sayin’ betas think with their _dick?”_

Meht nodded emphatically. “I _am_ saying exactly that.”

This was the best day of Lance’s space-life.

-o-

“Lance…”

Allura was standing in front of him, holding his hands in hers. If this was any other scenario, Lance would be delighted at this turn of events. Unfortunately, all Lance wanted to do was instantly turn into cosmic dust so that he never had to hear the words ‘alpha’ and ‘omega’ referred to him ever again.

“You are safe here,” she said firmly. “Omegas are not any less than alphas.”

Why were they even having this conversation?!

“I know that,” Lance said. “I just don’t understand why you’re telling me this?”

Allura hesitated for a beat before her expression hardened.

“You don’t have to hide it anymore,” she told him and Lance was getting scared. Just what was he hiding that Allura knew but he didn’t? “We know that you’re a galra, Lance.”

“I’m a _what?”_ Lance yelped.

“A… a galra,” Allura was starting to falter. “You are one, aren’t you?”

“No?” Lance snatched his hands out of Allura’s rather strong grasp. “At least I don’t think so?”

Kolivan and Meht entered the room. Lance desperately sought eye contact with his new friend Meht, or the equivalent of it, as Meht was still wearing their mask.

“Am I galra?” Lance asked desperately. “Or like, half? Like Keith?”

Meht immediately turned to look at Kolivan.

“We could run some tests,” Kolivan offered. “The tests will be able to track any Galran DNA in Lance’s body.”

Lance didn’t really want any needles, human or otherwise, to be poking into his skin, but it probably wasn’t up to him.

“We will run the test,” Allura said.

Yup, completely not up to him.

-o-

“I suppose that the good news,” one of the Blade’s researchers said, “Is that the blue paladin has absolutely no Galran DNA.”

“Ha! Pick up the phone because _I called it!”_ Lance cheered.

“Lance, wait,” Shiro said, but Lance had already run out of the room. Allura ignored him as she focused on the researcher.

“I suppose there is bad news?” she questioned. The researcher adjusted their glasses somewhat nervously.

“It depends on the perspective?” they said unsurely.

“Just tell us the news.”

“Okay!” The researcher fidgeted. “There may be a chance that the blue paladin is not… human? It may be an error in the readings, of course! And we can redo the testings…”

“That won’t be necessary,” Shiro said, frowning. “Thank you for helping us out.”

“So Lance _is_ hiding something after all,” Allura muttered.

-o-

“Oh shoot,” the researcher said, a long while after the Paladins and the Blade parted ways. “The blue paladin’s DNA samples were contaminated. No wonder the results were so weird.”

**Theory Two: Lance is Galran (or part-Galran)**

**Status: Debunked**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meht (MEH-het) is my baby and their stats are 
> 
> Strength: 7/10  
> Agility: 8/10  
> Intelligence: 4/10 (self-assessed)
> 
> they probably won't show up again so dw about it. 
> 
> also there are a lot of deleted scenes, especially from the galran part which includes lance being allergic to a type of flower that galra species are generally ALSO allergic too and also lance chanting "beta rights" a lot. 
> 
> "whats a beta" is the galran equivalent of "what's bofa"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!


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